


Unique

by Lunlun



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Canon Divergence, M/M, Obsessive Behavior, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29967870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunlun/pseuds/Lunlun
Summary: Then interest strikes him, suddenly, differently.Helping the Terrans, a bartender, and Odo should have punished him on the spot, when he saw and realized.He should have.Yet as he looked at him, past him, around him.He saw what he saw in himself.Loneliness, difference, uniqueness.
Relationships: Odo/Quark (Star Trek)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	Unique

**Author's Note:**

> I may have listened to a song while writing this, oops-

He was one of his kind. The only one. All the others long gone, as per the Intendant. He was alone, alone, unique.

And he liked it. The power it brought him. That the intendant trusted him, gave him a place that was fit for his powers, him.

The Terrans, as the Intendant said, worthless, wild, unruly. He could discipline them and make them obey the order that was established for their own good.

Odo liked his work.

His purpose.

* * *

A day like any other, Terrans punished, others allowed leeway to gain their trust so they would tell on those that plotted.

A day like any other, truly, like it is supposed to go, his day, his life.

But then, then, then…

Then interest strikes him, suddenly, differently.

Helping the Terrans, a bartender, and Odo should have punished him on the spot, when he saw and realized. 

He should have.

Yet as he looked at him, past him, around him.

He saw what he saw in himself.

Loneliness, difference, uniqueness.

Nervously the Ferengi skirted away after giving the Terran stale bread. His head swiping left and right until he schooled his face and disappeared into the bar.

Odo should’ve punished him.

But he had hesitated, and still did.

He realized, as much as he enjoyed punishing the Terrans, he would dislike the same for the Ferengi.

* * *

The station was what it was, everlastingly, cold, dark, and just the right amount of cruel to have the inhabitants listen to every demand.

Odo had not yet punished the Ferengi. Despite seeing on other occasions his help toward the Terrans.

If anything, he realized, he was using more time monitoring, finding out more about the Ferengi than he thought about his work or the Intendant's rage.

It was different, new, unique.

“Ferengi.” He said one day, quipped, to the point, staring down the Ferengi. So small, weak, it would be easy to break him, lure him into death’s arms. But he didn’t want to, not like he would with the Terrans.

The Ferengi halted in his movement, his hands stilled, his eyes big as he slowly turned to Odo. He was breathing quicker than he usually did, his big eyes flicking from right to left. “Yes?” He asked, in his voice a slight tremble.

“I order you to stop feeding the Terrans.”

And his eyes grew, like the plates he used, to bring the Klingons food. Trembled visibly, his entire body shaking. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He begged his arms stretched out in a plea.

Odo didn’t react, only kept staring him down.

The pitiful picture the Ferengi made had his inside twist in a new emotion, something he’s never witnessed with any humanoid before. It wasn’t like the crushing anger the pleas of the Terrans flamed in him, it wasn’t the strict loyalty he felt for the Intendant. 

No. 

It was different, it was confusing as it was anger inducing. But less at the Ferengi than it was for the fact he was begging and weeping like the Terrans did. It didn’t fit him. He was different, unique. He should be above pleading. And Odo was angry at himself for having put him in a position where he’d plead to him like all the other lower creatures.

“Stop pleading.” Odo growled.

And the Ferengi shrunk away but he stopped the pleas.

“That’s all.” He said before he left. 

He had thinking to do.

* * *

Thinking he did. But found himself trailing the Ferengi. Seeing what he did in his free time. Compiling every information he could find about him. His family.

It pleased him when he realized that he was different from his family. That his family kept away from him, for unknown reasons, not filed. So he must be lonely. He was so much like Odo. He was perfect, like Odo.

Different. Unique.

* * *

Unique, unique, unique.

Odo hated it when the Ferengi interacted with anybody else. He was unique. He shouldn’t muddy himself - his superiority to those he was different to - by meddling with them.

He hated it. Seeing him write his family back. Interacting with his patrons and his workers.

Odo wanted to keep him away from them. So he could never become like them. Lower himself, more and more, as he’s already done.

Odo knew, he knew he wouldn’t have helped the Terrans if not for those muddying him. He hated them. He wouldn’t be interacting with them if he didn’t have to.

Odo had heard him say it, in his quarters, privately, into his pillow after leaking liquid through his eyes.

And Odo knew, he knew he would not lower himself to this if he didn’t have to.

Like Odo.

Why would Odo lower himself to touch a Terran, a Klingon, a Cardassian if he didn’t have to.

Quark, as he had learned, thought like him.

The disgust had him leak fluids humanoids leaked when pain or anger filled them.

Quark hated them like Odo did.

So Odo knew him, and understood him.

He was the only one Quark would be equal to.

* * *

And Odo took him. For himself, with himself. When the Intendant's wish for Quark’s annihilation came. He took Quark and they fled. And they fled. And they fled.

And Quark, confused big eyes, terrified breaths as he clung to Odo’s hand.

It had been exhilarating, different, electrifying. The feeling, Quark’s skin. Like, like home, a moment of bliss, more than bliss. And it was unexplainable, something he’s never felt and he wondered if Quark had felt it too, on their joined skin.

His mind was scattered and he feared with how his insides sloshed he would fall into his natural state, that he would leave Quark to the mercy of those that were beneath them.

A ship, cloaked with the new device the Intendant found, and off they were. Nobody would find them now. Nobody would ever see Quark. Touch him, talk to him, muddy him.

Like it was supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> P.s. the disjointed way Odo is thinking is intended
> 
> Please comment!  
> Comments add to my life  
> Help me become an immortal


End file.
